In wireless communication systems, antenna arrays are used at devices on one or both ends of a communication link to suppress multipath fading and interference and to increase system capacity by supporting multiple co-channel users and/or higher data rate transmission. However, in order to achieve these gains, the antenna elements in an antenna array are weighted with corresponding elements of a vector, called a beamforming weight vector or a spatial signature.
There are challenges in computing the proper beamforming weight vector. For example, the estimation of the beamforming weight vector can be computationally intensive. Consequently, as the number of antenna elements at one or both devices on a communication link is increased, computing the beamforming weight vector becomes even more intensive. In addition, in some system implementations, pilot or preamble signals are used to allow a device on the link to estimate channel conditions. The use of pilot or preamble signals introduces overhead in the system and therefore reduces overall system data capacity.